Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Lovecraft is like a million years old! Celebrate with PDF Action!

I started to love horror movies when I hit high school. I became a quick convert when first discovering Evil Dead 2. Little did I know that the Necronomicon, a book I swear I had heard of before seeing the movie but just didn't know where, tied my favorite horror comedy of all time into the vast Mythos of Lovecraft. Eventually I got into role-playing games because of horror games and eventually have had some of my greatest gaming experiences ever as a result of horror as a genre.

I'm addicted to the stuff. Much like many other fans of genre fiction, horror just pulls us in, and there's really no better cosmic horror out there than Lovecraft. Some people think it's played out. They say gug, ghouls, and deep ones are too predictable, too obvious, and too exposed to the world to ever actually be scary. To me, they're missing the point of Lovecraft. While horror is the hardest genre to pull off at the gaming table, but when it works, it's not because of a scary description of some big, slavering, hairy monster from the GM. Horror games work because you can't trust those around you to protect and work with you. Horror works because every character has truly unique goals and equally unique means about completing them.

So to that end, I find a lot to love, still, in Lovecraft. I've recently stumbled upon Trail of Cthulhu not so much as a rule system I want to use to run games but rather as a huge source for inspiration for gaming scenarios. I also just like the stuff just for an entertaining, horrific read. To that end, I was thrilled to find rpgnow/drivethrurpg hosting a special sale on their Lovecraft pdf selection. Essentially you've got 15% off the whole list for two and a half more days (as of this posting). I picked up the following pdf's cause they were cheap and looked to be really neat - Cthulhu Apocalypse: The Dead White World, Trail of Cthulhu: Not So Quiet, Trail of Cthulhu: The Dying of St. Margaret's, and Cthulhu 101.

Go ahead and purchase some cheap-o Lovecraft pdf's. I've already read through Cthulhu 101 and am now full of even more stuff I want to read and watch (and listen to - epic lists of Lovecraft-influenced music will drive you crazy) because of it. Now I am off to follow the Trail of Cthulhu, and I'd recommend you follow me down the rabbit hole.